Stockton's levees due for checkup after just 10 years

More than $1 million that could have gone toward protecting Stockton from future floods will instead be spent proving that levees strengthened as recently as the late 1990s remain structurally sound.

Alex Breitler

More than $1 million that could have gone toward protecting Stockton from future floods will instead be spent proving that levees strengthened as recently as the late 1990s remain structurally sound.

The San Joaquin Area Flood Control Agency argues the levees are fine. But the agency had little choice in deciding this week to spend the public money.

Federal regulations have changed, and failure to act could eventually have triggered mandatory flood insurance for 400,000 Stockton residents.

"The law is the law," said Larry Ruhstaller, a San Joaquin County supervisor who sits on the flood agency's board of directors. "It's all reflective of Hurricane Katrina and other huge natural disasters like (Superstorm) Sandy. ... They have passed those laws, and we're going to have to live with them."

This story really starts in the 1990s, when it became apparent that much of Stockton was going to be mapped into a high-risk flood zone by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Most homeowners would have been required to buy flood insurance.

To avoid this, residents agreed to form an assessment district to pay to improve about 55 miles of levees on the Bear Creek and Calaveras River systems. The state and federal governments would pay for the bulk of the $70 million project, although today the feds still owe millions in reimbursements.

The work was finished in 1998, and the levees were certified by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 2000. Local flood officials thought they could move on to other priorities.

Three years ago, however, the Corps announced that certifications it issued for projects across the country would now expire after 10 years. That means San Joaquin must recertify its project from the '90s or risk an insurance mandate from FEMA.

This time the levees will be evaluated by a private firm, rather than the Corps, said Jim Giottonini, the San Joaquin flood agency's executive director. That will avoid a similar hurdle another 10 years down the road.

Giottonini called the need to recertify a "distraction." His agency is trying to plan to meet more rigorous flood protection standards in the future, but now it must look to the past and once again review levees it believes to be solid.

"Nobody has said anything bad about these levees," he said.

Maintenance problems identified by the Corps in recent years have been resolved, he said.

For the flood agency, $1.1 million is a big deal. It's almost as much as the agency's annual operating budget. And it will shrink the agency's bank account by close to 10 percent, reducing the amount of money available for future flood-control projects.

Chris Gray, a Corps spokesman, said his agency and FEMA "want to make sure levee certifications are based on the latest and best available information about levee conditions."

Thus, the provision allowing certifications to last only one decade.

"A lot can change in 10 years," Gray said.

Asked if the effort to recertify the levees would satisfy FEMA, keeping most of Stockton out of the high-risk flood zone, Giottonini said he was "confident" but added that nothing was certain.